Stomp Under Foot Astoria - David Gilmour Style Muff

Stomp Under Foot Big Muff versions

Stomp Under Foot The Astoria

Introducing our latest collaboration with Stomp Under Foot; The Astoria. Created as our tribute to one of our favorite Masters of the Big Muff, David Gilmour and named after his houseboat recording studio on the Thames river outside London.

With over a decades worth of experience building, repairing and cataloging all of the various muff circuits it would be fair to say Stomp Under Foot’s Matt Pasquerella has developed a reputation as a true specialist in the field of the Big Muff. Being a specialist in a field means folks reach out for all types of things and many just to talk tone.

It was during one such conversation that a customer told him a rather interesting tale; The customer was in possession of a Ram’s Head version which he claimed to be have been previously owned by none other than David Gilmour. His story being that he had purchased it directly from the legendary Pete Cornish when Pete was liquidating some of David’s excess gear. Matt was intrigued and of course as a librarian of all things Muff wanted to trace it.

After our first collab with Stomp Under Foot (the Amherst based on Matt’s trace of J. Mascis’s personal Big Muff ) we were talking about ideas for future projects when Matt told us the story. We were very intrigued to say the least but with no actual provenance on the part of the customer to prove it’s origins it is just a story at this point. In an effort to validate things Matt reached out to Pete Cornish who was kind enough to respond and confirmed that yes it was possible but without a receipt from the customer he could not confirm 100% that this was that exact pedal.

So where does that leave us?

While it is possible that this was one of Gilmour’s personal Ram’s Heads we cannot say with any certainty. What we can be sure about is that in the piles of circuits Matt has traced there is something different going on here as far as the parts in the circuit and the sum of those parts creates a special magic that truly does nail that Gilmour sound, be it coincidental or not.

"A lot of people seem to think that Gilmour's tone is smooth but if you really listen to it you will notice some grittiness in the fuzz. You can really hear this when he plays lower notes but you can also hear it in his leads. It's the way the leads seem to cut a bit better and have this very sustaining, smooth tone with a bit of harshness underneath.